MySpace

It has been brought to my attention that a person over at MySpace, under the guise of “officialjudygarlandfans” has been copying and pasting entire sections of websites and passing them off as their own. Including The Judy Room and Jim Johnson’s wonderful Judy Garland Database.

Although on the one hand it’s flattering that someone would deem our work good enough to copy, it’s sad that they would randomly copy and paste these pages out of context – rendering all of the original formatting and design useless. The blogs look horrible! And this person never once says “courtesy of…” or “these pages from….” or even “if you want more info, check out these websites…”.

I checked it out and posted comments to these blogs telling people that if they wanted more information, and if they wanted to see the complete sections as they were originally intended to be seen, to go to the links I provided.

This person deleted those comments. This person then emailed me via MySpace and said I was rude for doing that, and that they can copy and paste whatever they want. That they can’t give credit to every single photo and item they copy and paste, as that would take up pages and pages. And that I don’t know how MySpace works, that that’s what it’s all about, evidently copying and pasting. And on and on.

I tried to tell this person that copying and pasting random photos is one thing, but taking entire sections from websites, original graphics and writings included, and pasting them into their own pages without credit is another. Especially when accepting credit for them!

I then tried to post comments again, thanking people for their kudos about my writings and work. This person simply deleted my comments. Again and again. And then accused me of being selfish and only wanting to “commend” myself for “their blogs!”

This person has proven to be very rude, all the while justifying their actions with “everyone does it” and under the guise of trying to get information out there to Judy Garland fans. And all I asked for was TWO simple credits noting where this information came from. The person said that if I really cared about Judy Garland, I wouldn’t need to be “commended” for my work. I asked them why, if they were so interested in getting information “to the fans”, that my comments to these blogs were deleted – when all I did was give links for people to find out even more info about her??

So, you can see where this “conversation” was going.

The person then blocked me from these pages (blogs) all together.

[The night of Thursday, May 10th] I suddenly was unblocked, and was notified via a slew of emails about new blog posts to this page. Which showed that the two Judy Room sections in question (A Star Is Born & Meet Me In St. Louis), were “under construction”.

Now suddenly [Friday, May 11th] I’m getting more notifications that these blogs are being updated, but when I click on the links, I’m blocked again. So, I have no idea what this person is currently posting. I can only imagine!

It’s very frustrating to have someone take the pages that we webmasters work so hard on, and ruin them by (poorly) copying and pasting them elsewhere. And then taking credit for it!

This is very similar to what The Judy Garland Club did with their newsletter, but at least the Club worked with me after I brought the issue to their attention and we came to an amicable resolution. They were great! This person is not.

I’m relaying this here so people know that I do not approve the use of my pages in this manner. I am always willing to work with anyone who wants to use information on the site, for whatever purpose. All I ask is that if it’s any of my original writings or graphics, that proper credit be given. This is simply common courtesy. If this person had come to me and said “Hey, I’d love to include stuff from your site on my page…” or if they had simply put on these pages “courtesy of…” or something showing where all this information had come from, then I wouldn’t have an issue.

But the fact that this person is taking credit for my work is another thing. I’ve contacted the MySpace Copyrights Team, and am working with them to rectify the situation.

I have taken down the A Star Is Born and Meet Me In St. Louis sections from The Judy Room. I’ll put them back up when I’m able to hopefully fix them and make them harder to copy and paste in this manner. This is such an incredible nuisance!

So, if you go to this MySpace page, please know these blogs were done without my knowledge or approval.

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10 comments

I meant to mention that I would like to do a special section on The Pirate. Eventually I will. It’s one of my favorites.I’m busy with other things, including some ideas for the 10th anniversary of the site next year. 🙂

Thanks Dennis! My big problem with the whole thing wasn’t the fact that they were copying pics. I don’t own any copyrights to any of Judy’s photos – I only have copies and some originals of 8×10’s.It was the fact that this person was taking my entire pages and pasting them into their blogs. And then, when I posted a “comment” letting people know where it came from, and to go to The Judy Room for more info, my comments were deleted. Obviously this person was not wanting to work with me.But that’s ok – it’s all over now, and it’s prompted me to work on some of the pages and their out of date codes.I have heard stories about people passing other’s photos as themselves. I haven’t had that happen to me, but nothing’s impossible. It’s funny when you think of it. And sad at the same time.The Pirate is coming out on DVD – and yes, I have a copy on DVD taken from TCM a while back. Hopefully this one will be of a better quality!

i understand about the myspace thing, but dude- i find photos all the time – like a pic here or there and include it in my “favorite movies” section- but i dont copy/paste others’ text and stuff. i have had the bad luck of having photos of ME taken by guys and passed off as themselves trying to meet people online. when i confront them in a message- they block me and make their profiles private so i cant see what all they are pretending and who they are pretending to- i wanna warn the “friends” but i cant see who they are. trying to get the myspace “help/staff” to get them to remove my pix is almost like discussing problems with a recording.

Thank you Polo! The “A Star Is Born” pages will be back up soon. I’ve reformatted them – nothing that you would notice, just some fixes in the codes.”mimismama78″ emailed me and admitted that she was mistaken. That I’m not the one spamming this “poor girl”. The fact that she was able to admit fault says a lot. I believe it’s all blown over by now.Thanks for the nice note. I appreciate it whenever anyone takes the time to write.

‘blah blah blah’ ‘look it up in the dictionary mr big stuff?’ how old are you, seven? GREAT WORK SCOTT! I love you anyway! missing the site darling, can’t wait until you get it back up and running again! those ASIB pics were my favourite! you’ll have to email them to me coz i miss them! xx

Blah blah blah! Your ramblings have me doubling over in laughter! Get a life sir! Don’t make me expose you for the fraud and the loser you are. I happen to know that you yourself plagiarized(If you even know what that means) much of the material that you have on your pages. Any moron can break out a thesaurus and reword something. Half of the time you didn’t even bother! You are nothing but a big bully with too much time on his hands. Either Tom deleted your email after the first paragraph or kept reading just for the laugh factor. If these people could read the cruel and vulgar emails that you wrote to this girl you would have to change you ridentity. Nobody likes a bully and that is exactly what you are. You will sue for millions? Hahaha! You are ludicrous. In case you aren’t sure what that means I will tell you. It means LAUGHABLEY ABSURD! Look it up in the dictionary Mr. Big stuff. The one sitting next to your thesaurus. Goodnight and good luck.

It’s terrible that this happened, particularly taking your original writing and passing it off as their own! If they’re too lazy to write about what makes Judy Garland great *in their own words* then they don’t deserve to be running a site dedicated to her. Boo, hiss.

I just came accross your Judy website for the first time – finally there is a decent reference point online! Well done! I sympathise with your situation regarding this myspace person taking your material – it’s a pity that the public can’t see your original pages now however (but I understand).Best of luck Liam